Advancing orthopedic care for Soldiers

COL James Ficke discusses treating battled-injured Soldiers and his efforts to advance their treatment.

Good afternoon, I’m Colonel James Ficke. I’m an orthopedic surgeon. I graduated from the United States Military Academy and I had the privilege to go to the Uniform Services University for my medical school training.
As an orthopedic surgeon I have deployed to Iraq for one year. During that time I was able to take care of enough warriors that I’ve learned tremendous amounts of the battle-injured Soldier.
This benefit for our Soldiers is that I’ve come back to the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and have spent the last five years trying to research, trying to learn and trying to teach residents, medical students and other surgeons how we do orthopedic care for the wounded warriors.
This has been a phenomenal privilege for me and today I was able to speak at the American College of Surgeons’ Clinical Congress to share what we’ve learned and to be part of a symposium that has highlighted all of the efforts that we do at the Center for the Intrepid, one of the world’s leading rehabilitation centers.
In conjunction with transplant surgeons from Pittsburgh, Dr. Andy Lee, and now at John’s Hopkins University, we look to give options to Soldiers that they’ve never had before. Some of these options include hand transplants or the most advanced prosthesis in the world.
It’s been a privilege to serve and a privilege to speak today. Thank you.